Sales growth was largest among homes in above-median-priced categories in April, and more than 10% of homes sold had a sales price over $500,000.

In spite of the price variation by region, when summed to the regional level the median sales price for all regions of the US except the West falls into the $100,000 to $250,000 price range. The West is slightly outside of this range and the Northeast is near the edge.

The median price is the point at which the middle-priced home sold. By definition, half of homes in an area sold at a higher price and half of homes sold at a lower price than the median.

Sales were up from a year ago in the median-price category and all higher price tiers in all regions. Sales were only lower in the lowest price category in the West, South, and Northeast—most likely a result of limited inventory in this price range.

Notably, in most regions, sales growth was highest in the higher price tiers. In the Northeast, sales growth was strongest in the $1 million plus category while in the Midwest and West sales growth was strongest in the $750,000 to $1 million price tier. Sales in the South showed the most strength in the $500,000 to $750,000 category and were more than 30 percent higher than a year ago in all above-median price tiers which partly explains the strong price growth in the median in that region.

Sales in the lowest price tier began to show less growth and even decline in some areas in 2012. Unsurprisingly, this was the same period when we saw the biggest tapering off in reports of distressed sales in our survey of practitioners.

Strength in the upper price tiers has brought the share of homes-priced greater than $500,000 among those sold to over 10 percent in April. As inventory is more plentiful in these price tiers, construction seems limited, and distressed sales are anticipated to continue to drop, expect the share of higher priced homes among those sold to remain above the 10 percent level for the duration of the summer selling season, and possibly into the off-season.